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Cohabitation may put children at risk
Experts see more abuse with lack of two stable parents
BY DAVID CRARY The Associated Press

   NEW YORK — Six-year-old Oscar Jimenez Jr. was beaten to death in California, then buried under fertilizer and cement.
   Two-year-old Devon Shackleford was drowned in an Arizona swimming pool.
   Jayden Cangro, also 2, died after being thrown across a room in Utah.
   In each case, as in many others every year, the alleged or convicted perpetrator had been the boyfriend of the child’s mother — men thrust into father-like roles that they failed to embrace.
   Every family is different. Some single mothers bring men into their lives who lovingly help raise children when the biological father is gone for good.
   Nonetheless, many scholars and front-line caseworkers interviewed by The Associated Press see the abusive-boyfriend syndrome as part of a broader trend that deeply worries them. They note that an ever-increasing share of America’s children grow up in homes without both biological parents, and they say the risk of child abuse is markedly higher in the nontraditional family structures.
   “This is the dark underbelly of cohabitation,” said Brad Wilcox, a University of Virginia sociologist. “Cohabitation has become quite common, and most people think, ‘What’s the harm?’ The harm is we’re increasing a pattern of relationships that’s not good for children.”
SOBERING STATISTICS
   Existing U.S. data on child abuse are a patchwork, making it hard to track national trends with precision. The latest federal survey on child maltreatment tallies nearly 900,000 abuse incidents reported to state agencies in 2005 but doesn’t delve into how abuse rates correlate with parents’ marital status or the makeup of a child’s household.
   However, there are many other studies that reinforce the concerns. Among the findings:
   Children living in households with unrelated adults are nearly 50 times as likely to die of inflicted injuries as children living with two biological parents, according to a study of Missouri data published in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2005.
   Children living in stepfamilies or with single parents are at higher risk of physical or sexual assault than children living with two biological or adoptive parents, according to several studies co-authored by David Finkelhor, director of the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center.
   Girls whose parents divorce face a significantly higher risk of sexual assault, whether they live with their mother or father, according to research by Robin Wilson, a family law professor at Washington and Lee University.
   “All the emphasis on family autonomy and privacy shields the families from investigators, so we don’t respond until it’s too late,” Wilson said.
FAILURE TO BOND
   Census data make it clear that family patterns have changed dramatically in recent decades as cohabitation and single parenthood became common. Thirty years ago, nearly 80 percent of America’s children lived with both parents. Now, only two-thirds of them do. Of all families with children, nearly 29 percent are now one-parent families, up from 17 percent in 1977.
   The net result is a sharp increase in households with a statistically greater potential for instability, along with the likelihood that adults and children will reside in them who have no biological connection.
   “I’ve seen many cases of physical and sexual abuse that come up with boyfriends, stepparents,” said Eliana Gil, clinical director for the national abuse-prevention group Childhelp.
   “It comes down to the fact they don’t have a relationship established with these kids,” she said. “Their primary interest is really the adult partner, and they may find themselves more irritated when there’s a problem with the children.”
   That was the case with Jayden Cangro.
   In July 2006, his mother’s boyfriend, Phillip Guymon, hurled the 2-year-old across a room in Murray, Utah, because he balked at going to bed. The child died as a result.
   Jayden’s mother, Carly Moore, has undergone therapy since the killing. Yet she continues to second-guess herself about her twoyear relationship with Guymon.
   “There’s so much guilt,” she said in a telephone interview. “I never saw him hit my kids, ever. But he was gruff in his manner — there were signs that he wasn’t the most pleasant person for kids to be around.”
   The slaying of toddler Devon Shackleford was premeditated. Derek Chappell, who was sentenced to death this month, considered Devon an obstacle to an onagain, off-again relationship with the boy’s mother and drowned him in an apartment complex swimming pool in Mesa, Ariz.
NO EASY ANSWERS
parents, and examples abound of children thriving in nontraditional households.
   “There’s no going back to the past,” said Washington and Lee’s Robin Wilson. “We don’t tell people who they can cohabit with. We don’t tell them they can’t have children out of wedlock.”
   There are, of course, initiatives aimed at reducing the percentage of children raised by single parents. That’s among the goals of the Bush administration’s Healthy Marriage Initiative.
   The federal effort encourages single parents to at least consider marriage. Other programs focus on broadening the support network for single parents. Many social workers say the emphasis should be on nurturing healthy relationships, whether or not the parent is married.
   “The primary thing is to have adults around who care about these kids, whatever shape it takes,” said Zeinab Chahine, who was a New York City child-protection specialist for 22 years.
   Chahine, now with Casey Family Programs, said caseworkers need to learn as much as possible, in a nonconfrontational manner, about the personal dynamics in atrisk households. Is an unmarried partner spending time there? Does that person care about the children or deem them a nuisance?
   In the real world, however, learning crucial details about potentially fragile families isn’t easy.
   “The field struggles with the balance between intrusion in private matters and awareness of significant risks to the child,” said Fred Wulczyn of the University of Chicago’s Chapin Hall Center for Children. “With a social worker who’s in the house on a once-amonth basis, how good do we expect our diagnostics to be?”
MORE DATA NEEDED
   The sensitivity of probing into private lives is among many problems underlying the lack of definitive data correlating abuse with parents’ marital status and household makeup.
   Another problem is inconsistency in the state abuse reports provided to federal agencies. Differing definitions of “household” and varying efforts to ascertain marital status result in a statistical “hodgepodge,” according to Elliott Smith, who oversees a national archive of child abuse research at Cornell University.
   Child welfare specialists hope the statistical gaps will be filled next year by a comprehensive federal survey, the National Incidence Study.

Although I am a staunch believer in marraige, this article is clearly out of touch with the real issues. Such as 'bad choices' and being responsible for your children, married or not. I'm sure that these low lifes had some personality trait that would have clued the other party into knowing what bottom feeders they were. Again, bad choices!

Humans are very close to animals when pushing away those that are 'not their own'----that is why there are things like racism,bigots,greed, covetousness etc......the lesson that,,, we are our brothers keeper should be taken to heart.... and is by some .....and twisted by others and used in economic terms whether it be lazy,stupid or otherwise in the choices some folks make.......

If 'cohabitors' look at those they cohabitate with as their (let me be PC here) brother/sisters along with other foundational teachings as--'treat others as you would want to be treated', we might be in a better place in history---but, I doubt it....how many generations have lived on the earth? and here we are typing away on the WORLD WIDE WEB and with no more knowledge/wisdom than we started with,,,,just more toys......

And let's face it----Planned Parenthood IS an oxymoron and they do false advertising.........